Espelette pepper.
Espelette pepper.
A French pepper which has a particularity: it is the only French spice to benefit from the AOP (Protected Designation of Origin).
However, Espelette pepper is not originally French. It comes to us from South and Central America. At the time it was used there to season and preserve food. It was Christopher Columbus who brought him back to France and it would be one of his Spanish sailors who introduced him to the Basque country.
The first pepper plant was sown in 1650 in Espelette, a small French village located on the Spanish border. Peppers grow well there, the plant adapts to the local climate. Very quickly, the cultivation of chilli spreads in the region. The most beautiful peppers are selected and a few years later give a hardy variety that we will call "Piment d'Espelette".
Note that it takes 8 kg of peppers to produce 1 kg of powder. They are dried in the open air, in greenhouses, for at least 15 days, which allows the aromas to develop. The drying is then completed in the oven. The chilli then takes on an orange-brownish color. It is finally crushed and reduced to a powder of less than 5 mm.
It is not at all aggressive, very pleasant and long in the mouth. Fresh, you can brown it in oil like onions or cut it finely to add it to your dishes, broths or marinades. In powder, add it at the end of preparation, to spice up your dishes, like pepper. The spice specialist, Olivier Roellinger, sprinkles a pinch of Espelette pepper on the fried eggs, and adds it to the vinaigrette.
I recommend it for dessert, it goes very well with chocolate.
